MELBOURNE, Australia -- Yevgeny Kafelnikov insists tennis
players are not getting their fair share of money, and he doesn't
care what Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras think.
Kafelnikov, the outspoken Olympic champion, says the players
deserve a bigger slice of the tournament purses.
Agassi, who beat Kafelnikov in the final at last year's
Australian Open, says the Russian does not speak for the players on
tour.
"He should take his prize money when he's done here and go buy
himself some perspective," said Agassi, who has more than $20
million in career earnings.
"I'd be hard-pressed ever to spend time with a person who
thinks that making hundreds of thousands of dollars is not enough
money," he added.
Sampras, a winner of 13 Grand Slam titles, says calls for a
bigger slice of the prize money amounted to greed.
"I think we're all overpaid," said Sampras, who has picked up
more than $41 million in prize money since 1988.
Tennis officials contend it's a matter of market economics: The
top players get paid much more because they attract spectators,
generating more money for the sport. The Australian Open singles
winners in the men's and the women's draw will receive $473,385.
"You have to be realistic," said Barbara Travers, spokeswoman
for the International Tennis Federation. "Rookies in the NBA don't
get paid anywhere near what they paid Michael Jordan."
Kafelnikov has earned more than $18 million in prize money and
travels between tournaments in a private jet. He says he is a
"standup guy and I say what I want." The 26-year-old Russian also
says he doesn't "really care what the American democratic opinion
is."
The only players objecting to his stance were the high-paid
Americans, Kafelnikov said after rallying past Chris Woodruff of
the United States to advance to the fourth round.
"Many other players in the locker room share my thoughts and I
even got some support from the female locker room," he said.
"In some cases the prize money in the Grand Slams could go
up," said Lindsay Davenport, the defending champion at the
Australian Open. "I don't think that's outrageous although it
sounds like it when a person reads it in the paper."
Woodruff says Kafelnikov was trying to make the point that
relative to top golfers, tennis players were underpaid.
"I don't think that he necessarily meant that we're underpaid
in general," he said. "I think he meant that relative to golf."
Woodruff says it is easy for Sampras to say players were
overpaid considering his career earnings.
"I think everyone has to be realistic," he said. "It's a
very, very nice lifestyle out here if you're successful, and we
make, I think, we make a very nice living."
Jeff Tarango sparked the debate earlier in the week by
suggesting in a newspaper column that players eliminated in the
first round deserved a bigger cut of the profits generated by Grand
Slams.
The 32-year-old American lost in the first round in Melbourne,
earning $7,290. He has amassed more than $3.25 million in prize
money since turning pro in 1989. He has been ousted in the first
round in 25 Grand Slam tournaments.
"Jeff is a little extravagant in his ideas," South African
veteran Wayne Ferreira said. '"It's pretty decent at this stage.
Everybody gets paid a lot of money to do something they enjoy."
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